Measuring Top Incomes: Methodological Issues

Abstract

Abstract There has been a marked revival of interest in the study of the distribution of top incomes using income tax data. Beginning with the research by Piketty of the long-run distribution of top incomes in France (Piketty 2001, 2003 and Chapter 3 this volume), there has been a succession of studies, as evidenced by the chapters contained in this volume. In using data from the income tax records, these studies use similar sources to the earlier work of Bowley (1914) and Stamp (1914, 1916, 1936) in the UK, and Kuznets (1953) in the US. The Windings of recent research is, however, of added interest, since the data provide estimates covering nearly all of the twentieth century—a length of time series unusual in economics.